I NEWS 1
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Our Sincerest Wishes for a
Happy and Healthy NEW YEAR
Ethel & Ben Siegal -- Dennise, Danielle, Amy, Audrey, Carole, Marilyn
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the
MICHIGAN
GROUP
REALTORS®
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West Bloomfield, Michigan 48322
Veteran refusenik Yosef Begun holds one of his two grandchildren upon
his arrival in Israel with his wife Ina last February.
04 41 (313) 851 - 4100
RELO
WORLD LEADER
IN RELOCATION
THE SIGN OF SUCCESS
Soviet. Union Ambivalent
About Jewish Situation
DEBORAH LIPSON
Best Wishes
to all of our clients
and friends for a Happy
and Healthy NEW YEAR.
from all of us
at
THE MICHIGAN GROUP
Sales Manager
Bonnie Spicher
Assistant Manager
Joan Char
Linda Beltzman
Madeline Bleier
Wendy Bratt
Brenda Burdge
John Coury
Dianna Gogolen
Yvonne Giroux
Sharon Gutman
Gerry Hayden
Ruth Herzler
Joanne Lynch
Fred Madley
Ruth Malach
Rick Massa
Bob Massaron
Associates
Jessie McFadden
Marva McPherson
Barb Megerian
Barb Meisner
Carol Rankin
May Roach
Frank Skrumbellos
Marianne Strickland
Bill Woldt
Sharon Spindler
Cecil Malach
Michelle Ashley
Bonnie Char
Nadine Zywicki
FRED MADLEY
HOMESTEAD TITLE COMPANY
RELIANCE MORTGAGE COMPANY
104
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1988
Special to The Jewish News
erusalem — The situa-
tion of the estimated
1.7 million Jews of the
Soviet Union (unofficial
estimates put the figure
higher than two million) has
remained in the con-
sciousness of the free world
and on the agenda in
meetings between heads of
state. Just before Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev's
visit to Washington last
December, a massive rally of
an estimated quarter of a
million people demonstrated
their dissatisfaction with
Soviet policy on the question
of the right of Soviet Jews to
live freely as Jews within the
USSR and to repatriate to
Israel if they so wish. Yet
despite this awareness, the
situation for the Jews of the
Soviet Union remains am-
bivalent and unsure.
The facts of Jewish life
within the USSR today have
remained essentially un-
changed: the majority of
Soviet Jews know nothing of
their heritage or of Jewih
religious ritual and tradi-
tions; there are no Jewish
schools, centers of Jewish
culture or official access to
modern Israeli culture or the
Hebrew language.
The past year has seen a
growth in ultra-nationalist
right-wing groups within the
Soviet Union, whose doc-
trines clearly include anti-
Semitic elements. While such
groups (most active among
them is Pamyat, "Memory")
are not official, they have, to
a degree, been officially
sanctioned.
Unofficial attempts to
j
develop a Jewish culture have
met with less active suppres-
sion than in thepast. An unof-
ficial Museum of Soviet
Jewish Culture was opened in
Moscow in a privae home last
January; the city now
possesses an unofficial Jewish
library and Jews in several
Soviet cities performed
purimshpiels to mark the
festival of Purim. Hebrew
lessons are available in a
number of Soviet towns and
cities, and a new Hebrew
ulpan was openly advertised
in a local newspaper in the
Azerbaizhanian capital of
Baku in November 1987.
These and many other
small-scale
activities,
Many refuseniks
continue to be
refused permission
to leave on the
grounds that a
member of the
family has access
to classified
information.
however, are far from con-
stituting a fully-fledged
culture. Equally important, it
must be remembered that
they only reach a small
percentage of the Jewish
population.
In 1986, the number of
Soviet Jews permitted to
leave the USSR on visas for
Israel was, at 904, one of the
lowest annual figures since
the modern wave of emigra-
tion began in the early 1970s.
The figure for 1987, however,
was considerably higher —
8,155 Soviet Jews left, and
the 1988 total promises to be